ATN 3: THE JAR IN THE MAZE

RECRUITMENT PART-1

The next morning, Urwa caught up with me and Tina, and said, "I prayed to both my sides for you. You guys will do well. " Her words made me ask her, "How does it make you feel? Following both your sides?"

"I don't exactly put it into words." Urwa said, "But if you need to, I would say 'full'. Makes me feel that I am full."

"Thanks, Urwa." I said.

"What did I do?" She asked.

"Jay likes your idea of following our both sides." Tina said, "He is inspired by your beliefs."

"Oh! I do feel honored."

After breakfast, we entered through the new entrance of the Labyrinth. Before entering, Delilah talked to us about all the creatures she had felt and seen inside. Her help was useful, since she was experienced about the Labyrinth. We talked for a while to know more about the creatures present inside. Hermes had said that the most vicious monsters of the pantheon lived inside.

Anyway, we went inside, and started walking straight, as we were told. After walking in near darkness for a while, we entered a room. The room was weird. There was a lot of light, however I saw no food. So, perhaps we still had to go on.

This room, however, had no creatures. And sadly, no doors. It had yellow walls, and stretched out of sight. Tina started to walk and explore the room, but I caught her hand. "Wait!" I said, "If we move, we will lose our position, and we will never reach Catania. We have to go straight."

"Honey, there is no door." Tina said. Twice! Wow! I am not grinning, you are.

"The Labyrinth is messing with our vision. This is an illusion. Daedalus was like Mysterio back then. He was superb with his illusion tech."

"But there isn't a door."

"Keep walking straight. If I am right, the door will appear at the right moment."

Tina listened to me (not that she never does). We walked forward, and as we reached the other wall, it broke off, and within a moment, there was a dark way in front of us. Tina and I walked out. I suppressed a smirk of success, while Tina smiled at me, "You are pretty smart, you know that?" She said.

"Well, you are dating me, I must have something. If not the looks, maybe the brains." I said, suppressing another smirk.

We walked straight for about half hour more. We rested for a while, still aligned straight. I talked to Dadai through Iris rings, who said that a day had passed since we left, while it felt like two hours to us. Then, after walking for fifteen more minutes, we saw the light.

Actually, it was twilight. And straight led us out of the Labyrinth. "That's weird." Tina said, "Why are we going out? Ariadne said there would be a food room."

"I know." I said, "Well, let's find out."

We walked out of the darkness into light, and instinctively put our hand on our eyes. A moment later, when we removed our hand, we found ourselves in front of a lake. Around us, there was no other entry back to darkness. I turned and saw that the way we had come from was still open.

The soil around the lake seemed swampy. The lake's water seemed kinda greenish. Normally, lake waters are clear. While I was pondering over a way to go straight, it happened.

The lake, suddenly, started to create bubbles, as if something big was coming out of it. Tina's instincts had already smelled danger. She signaled me to wear my armor, and put on hers. We put on our helmets and pulled our weapons out. And then, what came out of the lake nearly took my breath away.

I saw a dragon, with six heads. This is nothing new. I had seen Ladon in the garden of Hesperides before. But this dragon seemed super dangerous. It's glowing yellow reptilian eyes full of hate. Venom dripping of it's slicked tongues. It was as big as two elephants. And it looked very familiar. Before I could deduce what it was, Tina shouted, "Hydra!"

Right, we were in Peloponnese. This lake was Lerna. And this dragon was the Lernaean Hydra. As soon as I got this, one of its heads attacked me, and the other attacked Tina. Instinctively, I jumped out of it's way, while Tina sliced off it's head. Then, she put her hand on her head. And we saw. From the area of the neck where the head was cut, out came two more heads. Now, it had seven heads. Just Hydra things.

The Hydra snarled, and attacked again. This time, both of us jumped away. "What do we do?" Tina asked.

"I will conjure some fire." I said, as we skipped away from another head, "As soon as you chop it's head off, I will burn the stump. That's how Heracles killed it, right?"

"Right."

I spread my arms and summoned fire in my hands. As soon as the Hydra attacked, Tina sliced it's head off. Immediately, I threw the fire I summoned on the stump, burning it and preventing the two heads from growing. This went on until there was just one head left. But here was a problem. The last Hydra head could not be sliced off. Every hit, every bit of magic was useless on that head. And if that was not enough, from the lake, came out a six foot long crab.

The crab made sounds with it's claws, and stepped towards us. "Tina get the Hydra. I will deal with this."

And that is when, they arrived.

They made sounds like the weird creatures of the Shadow of the Tomb Raider, absolute vicious. Their sounds surprised us, as well as the monsters. Soon, from behind us, came girls wearing torn clothes. All these girls were at least twenty years old. They were nearly fifty in number. Then, when I looked closely, I could see that they had one leg of a donkey. Their faces were beautiful, but the teeth, oh, absolute signs of blood-suckers. The empousai had arrived. One of them shouted, "Goddess Hecate's blood needs help. Fight for the son of Hecate."

They jumped into the battle viciously, and attacked the crab, letting me help Tina with the Hydra. The Hydra's venom had touched my armor, and had actually been able to corrode it. My left bicep was armor-less now.

That is when, I saw the monstrous boulder behind. "I have an idea." I said, "Keep it occupied."

Tina slashed at the Hydra, which kept attacking. I, however, had remembered the full myth. I ran behind the monster, lifted the boulder telekinetically very very high, moved it right at top of the Hydra's body. The boulder was so big, that it could easily crush the monster's body. I let it go. The boulder dropped on the Hydra's body. The whole body crushed, and the immortal head separated, it shivered for a moment, and then went still, it's eyes closed. That led to the venomous Hydra blood splash at us. And before it could touch us and kill us, I made a protective magical shield big enough to shield me and Tina, as well as the empousai.

The vampires killed the crab within minutes after we killed the Hydra. Then, they came to me, and kneeled. They said, "My lord, it's an honor to see you, and serve you. We are followers of your mother, who created us. We are always at your service."

Being called 'My lord' was pretty huge. Then, these pretty girls were in my service. I was already grateful enough. "Thanks, dear empousai. It's a pleasure to see you finally. I have heard so much about you from Mom. If you want to be at my service, help me."

"Just tell us, how." The girl that had shouted before said.

"I need an army to help us win the war against Jared Wilson's army. I need to save my mother, all of Olympus."

"Just tell us the place, we will sense when it comes, and reach."

"Themiscyra, ladies, the land of the Amazons."

"Anything for you, son of Hecate."

"I hate to tell you this, ladies, but we will need more reinforcements."

"Don't worry, my lord. We are spread all over in Greece. We are counted in thousands. If needed, all of the empousai community will stand by you. Go to your mission with peace of mind, you are not alone, my lord."

I shook hands with the empousa leader. Then, she and her followers left. Tina had been watching all this with huge eyes. "What just happened?" She asked. She had not said a word ever since the empousai had arrived.

"I will tell you." I said, "Come, there is our way."

Surely! Right where I had lifted the boulder to finish the Hydra off, had opened a way that led us back into the Labyrinth. It was straight from the way we had come out of. The pieces were falling into places.